State announces compact for tribal casino in Taunton

After Wednesday’s announcement that Gov. Deval Patrick and the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe reached a casino compact, the next moves are in the hands of the state legislature and the federal Department of the Interior.

After Wednesday’s announcement that Gov. Deval Patrick and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe reached a casino compact, the next moves are in the hands of the state legislature and the federal Department of the Interior.

The compact, which would govern the operation of a proposed tribal casino in Taunton, calls for 21.5 percent of gross gaming revenue from the tribe to go to the state. A 6.5 percent share of that amount would be used for mitigation in communities affected by the casino, but no specific projects are identified.

“This is a good deal for everyone,” Patrick said in a statement. “This Compact balances the interests of the Commonwealth with the inherent rights of the people of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.”

The tribe is seeking to build a $500 million casino on land it has under option in Liberty and Union Industrial Park in East Taunton. The proposal has already passed a local referendum, and the City Council has ratified an intergovernmental agreement with the tribe that specifies conditions, mitigation and payment in lieu of taxes at the local level.

The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council met Wednesday afternoon and approved the compact that evening.

“This is a great day for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the City of Taunton, and all of Southeastern Massachusetts,” tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell said in a statement. “This is the first step in an economic development plan that will bring long-term prosperity to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe while also bringing much needed job opportunities and revenue to the Commonwealth ... Our destination resort casino will enable our tribal government to move toward economic self-sufficiency and the ability to fully provide for the needs of our Tribe, including housing, health care, education, job training, cultural preservation, and conservation (of) natural resources.”

Patrick is expected to submit the compact to the state legislature this morning.

“If this Compact is approved, it will allow the Mashpee Wampanoag to open a unique facility that is governed and regulated by the tribe itself, in partnership with the state,” Patrick said. “I thank the tribe for their good faith negotiations to reach an agreement that is in their best interests as well as those of the Commonwealth.”

If legislators don’t approve the compact by July 31, the Mashpee would lose their exclusive hold on the southeastern Massachusetts casino market, and the state would solicit competitive bids for a commercial casino in the region.

Local politicians react

State Sen. Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton, said he expects the Legislature to approve the compact before the July 31 deadline.

“I don’t see any overriding reason why it will not be approved,” he said, explaining that the agreement appears to address most major areas of concern.

One aspect of the compact that stands out to Pacheco is the arrangement for 21.5 percent of gross gaming revenue from the tribal casino to be paid to the state.

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“This is gross gaming revenue, which is actually more than in some other jurisdictions,” he said.

In Connecticut, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun each pay the state 25 percent of their slot machine revenue, not gross revenue, according to the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection’s website.

The Massachusetts law calls for commercial casinos to pay a 25 percent tax on gross gaming revenue.

“This is another step in the process,” he said. “I’m excited about the potential for jobs in Taunton and southeastern Massachusetts.”

Next steps

If the compact is approved, the next major hurdle for the tribe is getting a land-into-trust application approved by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is currently preparing an environmental impact statement on the proposal. Such approval would give the Mashpee sovereignty over the land, which would be held in trust by the secretary of the interior. That approval is necessary to open a tribal casino.

Recent Supreme Court rulings raise some questions about whether the tribe, which received federal recognition in 2007, will be successful. A 2009 ruling indicates that a tribe cannot have land taken into trust if it wasn’t under federal jurisdiction before 1934.

The rulings could also open the door to legal challenges if the tribe does get approval.

Under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, an eligible federally recognized tribe is authorized to operate casino-style games on its sovereign land within the borders of any state that has approved that class of gambling.

If the state Massachusetts Gaming Commission determines that it is unlikely that the tribe will get land taken into trust, it may begin to solicit commercial bids for a casino in southeastern Massachusetts.

“I was concerned about the length of time that the tribe would have in terms of getting their land in trust at the federal level,” Pacheco said. “We don’t want to be a region of the state that ends up waiting five or six years to get land taken into trust, only for it not to happen. That is actually addressed in existing language.”

If another casino were to be approved in southeastern Massachusetts, the Mashpee tribe’s payment to the state would drop to 15 percent of gross gaming revenues, according to the terms of the compact. A slots parlor in the region, a Patrick aide said, would not impact the payment or the compact.

The agreement calls for the Patrick administration to advocate for the agreement to be approved by the legislature and to support the tribe’s land-in-trust applications.

Other provisions in the compact stipulate that the tribal casino will be a non-smoking facility and that the state of Massachusetts will be granted jurisdiction to prosecute violations or criminal activity taking place on tribal casino grounds. The tribe, under the agreement, must also consent to state workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance laws and provide health care benefits to employees.

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According to the compact, the tribal casino would be under the regulatory jurisdiction of a new Tribal Gaming Commission with oversight from the Massachusetts Gaming Commission and the National Indian Gaming Commission.

The compact is for a 15-year term and automatically renews for another 15 years unless either party provides notice for modification or non-renewal.